Obesity represents the most prevalent of body weight disorders, and it is the most important nutritional disorder in the western world, with estimates of its prevalence ranging from 30% to 50% within the middle-aged population. Other body weight disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa which together affect approximately 0.2% of the female population of the western world, also pose serious health threats. Further, such disorders as anorexia and cachexia (wasting) are also prominent features of other diseases such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, and AIDS.
Obesity, defined as an excess of body fat relative to lean body mass, also contributes to other diseases. For example, this disorder is responsible for increased incidences of diseases such as coronary artery disease, hypertension, stroke diabetes, hyperlipidemia and some cancers. (See, e.g., Nishina, P. M. et al. (1994) Metab. 43:554-558; Grundy, S. M. and Barnett, J. P. (1990) Dis. Mon. 36:641-731) Obesity is not merely a behavioral problem, i.e., the result of voluntary hyperphagia. Rather, the differential body composition observed between obese and normal subjects results from differences in both metabolism and neurologic/metabolic interactions. These differences seem to be, to some extent, due to differences in gene expression, and/or level of gene products or activity (Friedman, J. M. et al. (1991) Mammalian Gene 1:130-144).
The epidemiology of obesity strongly shows that the disorder exhibits inherited characteristics (Stunkard (1990) N. Eng. J. Med. 322:1483). Moll et al. have reported that, in many populations, obesity seems to be controlled by a few genetic loci (Moll et al. (1991) Am. J. Hum. Gen. 49:1243). In addition, human twin studies strongly suggest a substantial genetic basis in the control of body weight, with estimates of heritability of 80-90% (Simopoulos, A. P. and Childs B., eds., 1989, in "Genetic Variation and Nutrition in Obesity", World Review of Nutrition and Diabetes 63, S. Karger, Basel, Switzerland; Borjeson, M., 1976, Acta. Paediatr. Scand. 65:279-287).
Studies of non-obese persons who deliberately attempted to gain weight by systematically over-eating were found to be more resistant to such weight gain and able to maintain an elevated weight only by very high caloric intake. In contrast, spontaneously obese individuals are able to maintain their status with normal or only moderately elevated caloric intake. In addition, it is a commonplace experience in animal husbandry that different strains of swine, cattle, etc., have different predispositions to obesity. Studies of the genetics of human obesity and of models of animal obesity demonstrate that obesity results from complex defective regulation of both food intake, food induced energy expenditure and of the balance between lipid and lean body anabolism.
There are a number of genetic diseases in man and other species which feature obesity among their more prominent symptoms, along with, frequently, dysmorphic features and mental retardation. For example, Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS; reviewed in Knoll, J. H. et al. (1993) Am. J. Med. Genet. 46:2-6) affects approximately 1 in 20,000 live births, and involves poor neonatal muscle tone, facial and genital deformities, and generally obesity.
In addition to PWS, many other pleiotropic syndromes which include obesity as a symptom have been characterized (e.g. Ahlstroem, Carpenter, Bardet-Biedl, Cohen, and Morgagni-Stewart-Monel Syndromes). These syndromes are more genetically straightforward and appear to involve autosonial recessive alleles.
A number of models exist for the study of obesity (see, e.g., Bray, G. A. (1992) Prog. Brain Res. 93:333-341, and Bray, G. A. (1989) Amer. J. Clin. Nutr. 5:891-902). For example, animals having mutations which lead to syndromes that include obesity symptoms have also been identified. Attempts have been made to utilize such animals as models for the study of obesity, and the best studied animal models, to date, for genetic obesity are mice. For reviews, see e.g., Friedman, J. M. et al. (1991) Mamm. Gen. 1:130-144; Friedman, J. M. and Liebel, R. L. (1992) Cell 69:217-220.
Studies utilizing mice have confirmed that obesity is a very complex trait with a high degree of heritability. Mutations at a number of loci have been identified which lead to obese phenotypes. These include the autosomal recessive mutations obese (ob), diabetes (db), fat (fat) and tubby (tub). In addition, the autosomal dominant mutations Yellow at the agouti locus and Adipose (Ad) have been shown to contribute to an obese phenotype.
The ob and db mutations are on chromosomes 6 and 4, respectively, but lead to clinically similar pictures of obesity, evident starting at about one month of age, which include hyperphagia, severe abnormalities in glucose and insulin metabolism, very poor thermoregulation and non-shivering thermogenesis, and extreme torpor and underdevelopment of the lean body mass.
The ob gene and its human homologue have recently been cloned (Zhang, Y. et al., (1994) Nature 372:425-432). The gene appears to produce a 4.5 kb adipose tissue messenger RNA which contains a 167 amino acid open reading frame. The predicted amino acid sequence of the ob gene product indicates that it is a secreted protein and may, therefore, play a role as part of a signaling pathway from adipose tissue which may serve to regulate some aspect of body fat deposition.
The db locus encodes a high affinity receptor for the ob gene product (Chen, H. et al. Cell 84:491-495). The db gene product is a single membrane-spanning receptor most closely related to the gp 130 cytokine receptor signal transducing component (Tartaglia, L. A. et al. (1995) Cell 83:1263-1271).
Homozygous mutations at either the fat or tub loci cause obesity which develops more slowly than that observed in ob and db mice (Coleman, D. L., and Eicher, E. M. (1990) J. Heredity 81:424-427), with tub obesity developing slower than that observed in fat animals. This feature of the tub obese phenotype makes the development of tub obese phenotype closest in resemblance to the manner in which obesity develops in humans. Even so, however, the obese phenotype within such animals can be characterized as massive in that animals eventually attain body weights which are nearly two times the average weight seen in normal mice. tub/tub mice develop insulin resistance with their weight gain but do not progress to overt diabetes.
In addition to obesity, retinal defects, hearing loss and infertility have all been observed in tub mice (Heckenlively, 1988, in Retinitis Pigmentosa, Heckenlively, ed., Lippincott, Philadelphia, pp. 221-235; Coleman, D. L. & Eicher, E. M., 1990, J. Hered. 81 :424-4a27; Ohlemiller, K. K. et al. (1995) Aeuroreport 6:845-849). Several human syndromes exist in which such defects are found to co-exist with an obesity phenotype, including Bardet-Biedl syndrome, Ahlstroem syndrome, polycystic ovarian disease and Usher's syndrome.
The fat mutation has been mapped to mouse chromosome 8, while the tub mutation has been mapped to mouse chromosome 7. According to Naggert et al., the fat mutation has recently been identified (Naggert, J. K., et al. (1995) Nature Genetics 10:135-141). Specifically, the fat mutation appears to be a mutation within the Cpe locus, which encodes the carboxypeptidase (Cpe) E protein. Cpe is an exopeptidase involved in the processing of prohormones, including proinsulin.
The dominant Yellow mutation at the agouti locus, causes a pleiotropic syndrome which causes moderate adult onset obesity, a yellow coat color, and a high incidence of tumor formation (Herberg, L. and Coleman, D. L. (1977) Metabolism 26:59), and an abnormal anatomic distribution of body fat (Coleman, D. L. (1978) Diabetologia 14:141-148). This mutation may represent the only known example of a pleiotropic mutation that causes an increase, rather than a decrease, in body size. The mutation causes the widespread expression of a protein which is normally seen only in neonatal skin (Michaud, E. J. et al. (1994) Genes Devel. 8:1463-1472).
Other animal models include fa/fa (fatty) rats, which bear many similarities to the ob/ob and db/db mice, discussed above. One difference is that, while fa/fa rats are very sensitive to cold, their capacity for non-shivering thermogenesis is normal. Torpor seems to play a larger part in the maintenance of obesity in fa/fa rats than in the mice mutants. In addition, inbred mouse strains such as NZO mice and Japanese KK mice are moderately obese. Certain hybrid mice, such as the Wellesley mouse, become spontaneously fat. Further, several desert rodents, such as the spiny mouse, do not become obese in their natural habitats, but do become so when fed on standard laboratory feed.
Animals which have been used as models for obesity have also been developed via physical or pharmacological methods. For example, bilateral lesions in the vetromedial hypothalamus (VMH) and ventrolateral hypothalamus (VLH) in the rat are associated, respectively, with hyperphagia and gross obesity and with aphagia, cachexia and anorexia. Further, it has been demonstrated that feeding monosodiumglutamate (MSG) or gold thioglucose to newborn mice also results in an obesity syndrome.
In summary, therefore, obesity, which poses a major, worldwide health problem, represents a highly heritable trait. Given the severity, prevalence and potential heterogeneity of such disorders, there exists a great need for the identification genes involved in the control of body weight.